Tropical Tendencies…

Maybe it was the discovery of fresh guavas at Fiesta (an international grocery store with a heavily Hispanic tilt)…[And no, I’m not really sure how to eat them. Is there a right way? I guess I could-a/should-a/would-a look that up, but….eh. I just wait until they are soft, cut ’em open, and munch….seeds and all.]Or maybe it was the discovery of this incredibly beautiful pineapple at the g-store over the weekend……after a few weeks of ho-hum, not-so-pretty-but-on-sale-so-tempting, pineapple spottings, I stumbled upon this beautiful supah-fly specimen…Why, Mr. Pineapple, what big eyes you have….And, like I dog, I sniffed his rump to see whether or not this was going to be the start of a beautiful friendship, or the beginnings of a dangerous bout of barking.

Like getting a whiff of a baby’s diaper, if the pineapple’s bum is sweet-smelling you’re in the clear…if it’s acidic or rotten, well…you know what to do.*

[For information on How to Attack a Pineapple Before It Attacks You, please click here (or there)]Or maybe it was the fact that we are now entering winter and snow is falling down all around and the thoughts of escaping to a sun-filled island oasis (or Costa Rica, which is not an island, but in my opinion, the best place in the world*)…*having been to very few places

Wait. Hold up. It can’t be that last thing, since I live in Texas. And I go outside in the morning and think, “Gosh darn it, it is COLD” and then look at the thermometer in my car and note that it is actually only 50 degrees outside.

So fine…it must have been the guavas.

Once I cut up a few of those little gems of “not for everyone” indescribable flavor (seriously, I am at a loss…) ……and put it on top of a CFYIAT (Cereal, Fruit, Yogurt In A Tub…goll it has been awhile since we’ve talked about those!)….

(along with the last persimmon of the season and a dollop of Peach Blueberry “Buttah”)…I have had a week full of tropical tendencies.

OK, so no, I didn’t start humming Garth Brooks’ “Two Pina Coladas” repeatedly (although now that I’ve mentioned it, it is running through my head) or start living like Kenny Chesney in his “I want to be Jimmy Buffet” phase circa 2005…but I did eat a lot of pineapple…

…occasionally with pomegranate seeds.And while the verdict is still out on whether or not we can really call a pomegranate “tropical,” if you pair it with passion fruit (as in my favorite flavor of Siggis)……well then, it has a tropical twist at least. [And yes, I did manage to score more Siggis on dairy clearance. I must have some sort of internal sensor that leads me to Sprouts just as they are marking these items down.]

And while I was purchasing that clearance yogurt, I bought an on-sale one too:While oranges aren’t exactly tropical, I feel like pairing them with ginger at least makes them exotic. And if you eat this with a banana (clearly tropical) AND an orange, well you’ve got some sort of island escape happening in your mouth.[What was NOT happening in my mouth? A party of overwhelming excitement about orange ginger yogurt. It tasted like someone had mixed in a scoop of orange marmalade into regular old Greek yogurt. Not that I have anything against that (I actually love orange marmalade), but if I’m going to spend that much money, I want a flavor I can’t create easily (and much more cheaply) at home. Frankly, there wasn’t enough ginger either. In fact, I don’t even remember tasting ginger at all, although I think there were chunks of it in there…that just tasted like the orange rind you find in orange marmalade…]

And then, because once I’ve developed a fixation it is hard to stop (and because I used up the last of my Peach Blueberry “Buttah” in my breakfast depicted previously)…I decided to combine my tendency toward the tropical and my obsession with creating twenty thousand versions of something once I’ve found a recipe I relish, and experimented with some Strawberry Mango ‘Buttah’…….by first combining one bag of frozen strawberries with one bag of frozen mango……and then, deciding to get even crazier, added about 1/4 cup of coconut (also bought on special…goll, I’m good).Then, I cranked the heat……and the juices started to escape [read: the frost on the fruit started to melt].I stirred and mashed on occasion.And stirred and mashed some more.For some reason, I have no after picture. But you can imagine what it looks like: a big, rosy colored mess of deliciousness with flakes of coconut running throughout to add texture.

Once again, like the Peach Blueberry version before it, this ‘buttah’ is delicious warm, cold, on top of yogurt, or straight into your mouth via a spoon.

Now bring me those two pina coladas, Garth…

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By the way, the cereal in my CFY was combination of old favorites and new discoveries.Old favorite:(Seriously, I have said it before, but they have GOT to be lying about the sugar content. Whatever, it is awesome…and mixing it with my other old favorite–puffed wheat–neutralizes the one and perfects the other.)

New Discovery:Like a less-tummy-trouble-causing version of All-Bran Buds (which, who cares what they might do to certain people’s stomachs…we love ’em anyway), these not only make me happy because they are apparently made by someone named ‘Perky,’ they add a really great crunch with just the right amount of nutty flavor. Love them. (And that they were on sale. Otherwise, never would have bought them.)Also, just to prove to you I’m no perfect blogger…I seriously have a lot of trouble opening cereal boxes……and bags.This makes it really hard if you are trying to measure out a serving. My measuring cup does not fit, so I end up trying to squeeze my fingers in there and grab a good guesstimate of how much I want. Inevitably, this ends with Crunchy Flax scattered all over the table and remnants in the bottom of the box that you don’t discover until you’ve finished the bag and there is a whole pile of (now stale, despite what is in the bag staying fresh) cereal waiting for you, mocking your inability to correctly tear open a plastic bag and/or laziness in simply going to find a pair of scissors.

I was so thankful when you first posted the 'how-to' cut up a pineapple. I love pineapple and have always wondered if I was doing it right – and basically quit buying fresh because I had such a hard time cutting it up. So thanks for that and the tips on finding the best of the bunch. It works! Hope you have a wonderful holiday from school and visit somewhere special.